


Short and Sweet

by cuddlesome



Category: Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair, Coffee, F/M, One Shot, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Touchy-Feely
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 17:44:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4796495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlesome/pseuds/cuddlesome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A simple tale about two cuties and an oversugared caffeinated hot drink.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Short and Sweet

**Author's Note:**

> I have some fond memories associated with this one-shot; I wrote part of this like two years ago while I was sitting on a balcony in the dead of night outside of a hotel in the Black Forest in between reading Frankenstein. It was so nice, my own little piece of heaven.

Ibuki asked to walk with Byakuya on the way to the diner one morning. ‘Walk’ in a manner of speaking, anyway; she had to go into a light trot to keep up with his pace. He made a noncommittal harrumph in response to her question.

Ibuki seemed to take it as an affirmative. “Sweet, thanks, Byakuya.”

Byakuya spared her a cool glance. "Don't presume to address me with such familiarity."

What he didn’t tell her was that it disconcerted him to have someone say his name--oh, but it wasn’t quite his name, it was just the one that suited him at the moment--with such casual affection.

He walked a little faster.

At which point Ibuki tripped and went sprawling on the ground. Or, she would have, if not for Byakuya moving out in front of her to save her from the fall. Due to the significant difference between their heights, Ibuki collided with the soft swell of his belly as he grabbed her shoulders.

In the awkward stretch of time that followed, Byakuya became distinctly aware of a number of things:

First and foremost, Ibuki weighed next to nothing. Given the inclination to do so, he could heft her up as easily as a small pet. The thought of how low her body mass to fat ratio probably was distressed him immensely.

Second, she didn’t seem in any hurry to move. If anything, she prolonged the contact for far longer than socially acceptable. She'd had her arms outstretched to save her from the fall, but they now rested on either side of him, cushioned against his meaty hips with the tiniest of squeezes.

Last, and most disturbing, he found he didn’t mind said contact.

“Have you somehow managed to hurt yourself?” Byakuya asked in the tetchiest voice he could muster. "In the likely case that you haven't, you'll have no trouble removing yourself from me. I can't have a weakling depending on me for too long."

Ibuki backed up, reluctant, and he didn’t miss the way she brushed her hands over his sides before she extricated herself completely. He didn’t know what to make of it.

When she looked up at him her grin was blinding. "Ibuki’s decided to honor your request not to be called by your first name.”

“That wasn’t a request.”

“Do you prefer ‘Mister Togami’ or ‘Master Togami’? Or maybe ‘Monsieur Togami’?”

He rolled his eyes and scoffed. "In hindsight, I prefer familiarity to that."

“Byakuya it is.”

She didn't trot alongside him the next day, instead breaking into a skip.

"Hi, Byakuya," she said. "A little birdie told Ibuki that you like coffee, so here! Have some of Ibuki's special brew."

With a flourish that nearly ended in the scalding liquid sloshing over the edge, Ibuki presented a mug of coffee. Said coffee was caramel brown and tiny cartoon pink skulls dotted the mug.

“Consider it a little thank you gift from Ibuki to you for saving her from face planting in a public area.”

For a long moment Byakuya just stared, lips parted. Then he pushed his glasses up on his nose and was all composure once more.

"You checked my profile on the school database."

"Orrrrr maybe Ibuki is just savvy to what businessmen like to drink. Come on, have some faith." She then proceeded to blink rapidly in what Byakuya supposed was meant to be fluttering her eyelashes. "Now, did you want to accept this coffee? Ibuki's arm is getting tired."

Ah, yes, she still had the coffee mug held out in the same overdone pose as before.

He exhaled through his nose. "Fine."

Byakuya released one of his arms from the near-constant state of being crossed over his chest and reached out. Had it been anything besides a mug filled near to the brim with hot liquid, he would have swiped it away in short order. As things were, he handled it with care, resulting in Ibuki's skinny ring-covered fingers mingling with his own far thicker digits for a noticeably long period of time.

"Ah... Ibuki didn't think she'd get this far, so she wouldn't have to confess to this, but... she called that coffee 'special' earlier, when it's really just instant coffee with loads of cream and sugar." She rubbed the back of her neck, eyes averted to the ground. "Ibuki doesn't know if you'll like it. You're probably used to whatever fancy stuff most upper-class people drink, huh?"

"Yes, I'm not accustomed to... this..." Byakuya wasn't looking at the coffee when he spoke, but rather at her with a nonplussed expression. His countenance became harsh again when she looked back up at him. "You didn't spike this drink with anything, did you?"

"Again, you need to have more faith in Ibuki."

"I'm not hearing a 'no'."

"Good gosh." Ibuki sighed exaggeratedly. "No, Ibuki absolutely, positively, in all honesty, did not put drugs in Byakuya's coffee."

He scrutinized the surface, then realized Ibuki was staring at him, expectant. Before he could think better of it, he brought the mug to his mouth and took a sip.

It was... sweet. Incredibly, overpoweringly sweet.

“Soooooooo what do you think?” Ibuki asked, looking from his face to the coffee and back again. “Is Ibuki the most expert ameteur barista ever?"

“That’s an oxymoron.”

“Is that your way of saying ‘yes indeedy Ibuki’?”

Instead of responding, he took another sip. The sweetness hadn’t leveled out.

"How much sugar did you put in this?" Byakuya pursed his lips and peered down at the coffee again.

Ibuki took a moment to count on her fingers. "Eight and a half-ish packets. Ibuki ate the last bit of sugar in the ninth packet.”

In spite of being appalled by that amount, Byakuya ended up drinking it all. There was a thick layer of sugar collected at the bottom that he made a show of scraping out with his fingers and licking off, eyeing Ibuki all the while. She didn’t even attempt to disguise her staring.

After he finished, Byakuya managed a gruff thanks. He was rewarded with Ibuki letting out a little laugh and playing with her bangs, presumably to hide the blush that had started to creep across her face. When he handed the mug back to her, he allowed the prolonged contact of their hands to go on for even longer than the last time for reasons he couldn’t articulate even if he wanted to.


End file.
